


Operation Paperclip

by Wind_Ryder



Series: Tumblr Fics [22]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Arguments, Drabble, Tumblr Prompt, friends - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2015-11-15
Packaged: 2018-05-01 19:12:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5217521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wind_Ryder/pseuds/Wind_Ryder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anonymous asked: Peggy Carter and Operation Paperclip</p><p>Peggy discovers Howard has commissioned Arnim Zola to work with him as part of Operation Paperclip. She is not amused.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Operation Paperclip

“Have you  _completely_ lost your mind?” 

For the first time, Howard Stark regretted giving Peggy an open invitation (and a key) to his house. Not that she needed one. Where he went, Jarvis went. And Peggy had no difficulty convincing Jarvis to open the door for her. He looked up, smiled, and tried to recall if he’d done something particularly awful lately. Nothing especially came to mind. 

Past crime then? More than likely. 

“Peggy! How good to—” She  _slapped_ him! She actually  _slapped_ him. He hadn’t been slapped by Peggy Carter since she found out about Steve’s blood, and frankly…he probably deserved that one. So this was Steve related. She always got riled up about things that were Steve related. 

_(Not that he blamed her. He got riled up about Steve too.)_

“What on  _Earth_  were you thinking?”

“Gonna have to be more specific,” Howard muttered, rubbing his cheek. He glanced towards Jarvis pleadingly. Jarvis didn’t react. Brits. Either coming at you with fire and brimstone or a ice cold demeanor that could chill a room. What’d he do to deserve two of them in his life? 

_(Probably something fantastic. He wouldn’t trade either of them for the world.)_

“Arnim Zola,” she spat out the name with all the hatred and fury she could muster. Howard flinched. Ah. That. 

“Pegg—”

“—He  _tortured_ the 107th. He was directly responsible for Sergeant Barnes’ death.”

“Bucky fell from a train.” She slapped him again. 

Jarvis stepped forward and placed his hands on her shoulders. He pulled her back. “Miss. Carter—”

“—he was your friend!” Howard twisted his head away. “He was your friend. He sat with you. He spoke with you. He helped you in that shop. He was a good man. And that is to say nothing of Dugan, Dernier, Jones, or Morita. All captives of the very man you’re protecting.” 

“Arnim Zola’s a brilliant scientist,” Howard told her quietly. “He understands genetics and engineering in a way that makes our heads spin. His work, used appropriately, can vastly improve our way of life.” 

“He strapped a boy barely older than seventeen to a table and drained him dry just to see what would happen.” Howard flinched. He’d nearly been sick when Barnes told him that. “He pulled organs from a living man. He injected poisons to see their effect. He is a  _monster_.” 

Barnes liked to sit with Howard and watch him work. He was quiet. Didn’t feel like talking much. Oh, he laughed and jokes and played all sorts of games when Steve was around. But in the moments when he was by himself, Barnes was quiet and withdrawn. 

_(“He doesn’t understand the war,” Barnes told Howard. Eyes cast downwards. Haunted. Afraid. A bomb went off in the distance. Bucky’s head curled towards his chest._

_“No,” Howard agreed, passing him some scotch. Bucky drank it down in one gulp. Kid could drink anyone under the table. ‘Cept maybe Rogers. “He doesn’t.”)_

“He crossed all the lines that made him a monster. He found results to things we’d never think to find. Peggy…because he did those things…because he did them…we  _know_  how to cure diseases we’d never been able to before. We know how elements react to each other we could never solve in the past. I know…I know what he’s done…”

_(Barnes screamed in his sleep so loud that sometimes Steve had to cup one hand over his mouth and pin him down.)_

“But we can use that madness for the better…we can make things right.”

“Once you make deals with the devil, it’s only a matter of time before you join him in hell.” 

He thought she might slap him again. She didn’t. She turned on her heel and started to walk away. She paused at the door, turning to look at him. She didn’t look angry anymore. Just infinitely sad. 

“Steve would be so disappointed in you.”  

He flinched. 

The worst thing about it; she was right.


End file.
